Not so sweet after all! See how sugar is crushing your health every day

Not so sweet after all! See how sugar is crushing your health every day

Sugar tends to make us addict, which causes intense craving with the feeling of deprivation and bloating.

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Aysha Anam

IndiaToday.in

New Delhi

June 4, 2018

UPDATED: June 5, 2018 10:31 IST

(Photo courtesy: Getty Images)

Sugar does not behave sweetly with your body. It leaves behind some dark bitter imprints on your body. It can cause high blood pressure, inflammation, which is not good for the heart.

Your tooth can decay because of excessive sugar consumption. Although it is a feast to your taste buds, it has no nutritional value. In our day-to-day life, we consume more than 20 grams of sugar, as packaged food and drinks use excessive sugar of which we are not even aware.

Poisonous packaged products with maximum sugar

In order to increase the sale of products, companies these days are doing anything and everything to get noticed by the tongues of the consumers. They do elevate the taste but then the nutritional value of the product suffers.

People are not aware of the quantity of sugar present in juices, flavoured yoghurts and salad dressing. Although they want to eat something healthy, they end up eating excessive sugar.

"High fructose corn syrup is also used as a substitute for sugar in packaged drinks which is even more harmful and causes obesity,'' adds Dr Aga.

Filling a glass with cola and its equivalent in sugar cubes. (Photo courtesy: Getty Image)

Daily consumption of sugar

Sugar consumption may vary from person to person. A healthy person can consume 20-25 grams of sugar while obesity patients should take only 10 grams of sugar.

"According to the American Heart Association, women should have no more than 6 teaspoons per day, which is 25 grams of sugar or 100 calories from sugar. A man is allowed 9 teaspoons of sugar daily, or 38 grams of sugar, which is around 150 calories from sugar. Sugar consumption for children should not go beyond three teaspoons of sugar per day, which equates to 12 grams. This includes sugar from all sources of food - natural or manmade, '' quoted Dr Aga.

Can we live without sugar?

Well, there is a popular notion that sugar is going to give you energy so you have to have a certain amount of sugar to do daily chores. However, Dr Batra says, "Sugar is present in its complex form in most of the foods that we consume, so discarding refined sugar would not cause any deficiency.''

Rather, sugar tends to make us addict, which causes intense craving with the feeling of deprivation and bloating as sugar causes addiction much like drugs or alcohol.

- Dr Pallavi Aga

"In fact, there is not much need of sugar for the functioning of the body as the body gets sustained energy from complex carbohydrates," she adds.

How to control cravings for sugar:

The human body takes some time to adopt changes. It takes at least 21 days for us to stop the consumption of sugar. One can control the sugar cravings "by eating regular balanced meals on time.

Irregular meals are one of the biggest reasons for sugar cravings.

Going on fad diets, which are low carb, low fat, etc. can also increase the cravings. Eating sugar itself makes you crave more and more so just cut it out to get out of the sugar binge cycle,'' advised Dr Batra.

(Photo courtesy: Getty Images)

Substitution for Sugar:

The best substitution to sugar are foods like dates, jaggery, fresh fruits, honey, figs, coconut, but in a proper amount. Sweet spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cardamom, and cloves can be a good substitution.

Dr Aga explains how sugar can spoil your body:

Skin

The sugar in your diet affects the amount of sugar in your bloodstream and research has shown that that high blood sugar levels set up a chemical process called glycation. This hampers the repair of the skin's collagen, the protein that keeps it looking plump hence leading to reduced elasticity and premature wrinkles.

Hair

A high sugar intake spikes your blood sugar levels which damages hair follicles and potentially accelerate hair loss. It also causes inflammation of the scalp leading to loss of quality and quantity of hair. This would further cause to dry scalp, dandruff, and damaged hair follicle.

High Fructose also leads to the formation of superoxide free radicals to form, resulting in inflammation in the body. It also leads to fatty liver which ultimately results in liver failure and is a potentially dangerous condition.

Get rid of the accumulated sugar in blood: Detox

The experts, Dr Aga and Dr Batra, advise us to discard artificial sugar such as desserts, sugar-sweetened beverages and processed food or snacks and add natural sugar, which is present in fruits, in our diet. Also, add complex carbs and foods like cinnamon, jamun, neem, bitter gourd in our diet.

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